The Tucson Theatre Announcements List is a monitored e-mail list. Notices from Tucson area theatre companies, filmmakers and others are forwarded to the list members. These notices include auditions, casting calls, openings and other announcements of interest to actors, directors, techies and theatre lovers in our community. This Blog contains an archive of recent posts to the list. For more information go to http://tucsonstage.com

Freud’s Last Session Imagines on Arizona’s Stage the Electrifying Confrontation Between Sigmund Freud and His Final Visitor, Christian Philosopher C.S. Lewis

Arizona Theatre Company is pleased to bring Mark St. Germain’s

provocative smash Off-Broadway hit to Arizona

TUCSON, Ariz. (December 28, 2012) – Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) provides Arizona audiences an electrifying evening of high-stakes intellectual sparring in Mark St. Germain’s “Freud’s Last Session.” Having played to record-breaking off-Broadway crowds, St. Germain’s brilliance continues with Arizona performances of “Freud’s Last Session” at the Temple of Music and Art, running from January 19, 2013 – February 9, 2013. It continues its run in Phoenix at the Herberger Theater Center from February 14, 2013 – March 3, 2013.

Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, two of the 20th Century’s greatest intellects, come together in 1939 as England goes to war against the Nazis for an evening of thoughtful discourse about God, love, sex, myth, and the meaning of life and death. Freud, the renowned atheist and stricken with cancer, is intrigued by the rising star of Oxford, so much so that he invites the younger Lewis to his home for what is in several ways an eleventh-hour summit. Freud would be dead within weeks, and Lewis – later the author of “The Narnia Chronicles,” would soon rise to popular acclaim for his wartime broadcasts on the Christian faith.

This long-running off-Broadway hit was written by Mark St. Germain and was suggested by “The Question of God” by Armand M. Nicholi, Jr. Arizona performances will be directed by Stephen Wrentmore, ATC Associate Artistic Director. “Freud’s Last Session” is sponsored by Emerson and Peggy Knowles. ATC’s season sponsors are I. Michael and Beth Kasser.

Mark St. Germain (Playwright) wrote the plays “Dr. Ruth,” “All the Way,” “The Best of Enemies,” “Camping with Henry and Tom,” “Ears on a Beatle,” “The God Committee,” “Out of Gas on Lover’s Leap,” and “Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah.” He also co-wrote “The Gifts of the Magi,” “Johnny Pye and the Foolkiller,” “Jack’s Holiday” and “The Fabulous Lipitones,” which will premiere at Theatrical Outfit in Atlanta next summer. His television credits include “Lifestories,” and Writer/Creative Consultant for “The Cosby Show.” He co-wrote Carroll Ballard’s film “Duma,” and produced and directed the documentary, “My Dog: An Unconditional Love Story.” Mr. St. Germain also wrote the award-winning children’s book “Three Cups.” He is an associate artist of Barrington Stage Company, recipient of the William Inge Festival New Voices Award, and a member of the Dramatists Guild and Writer’s Guild of America East.

Stephen Wrentmore (Director) first came to Arizona Theatre Company as an Associate Director with The National Theatre’s production of “Hamlet” and later returned to direct “Copenhagen” and “Macbeth.” Currently celebrating his second season as Associate Artistic Director at ATC, he has also directed “The Great Gatsby” and numerous performances for ATC’s Café Bohemia; later this season he will direct “Freud’s Last Session” and Café Bohemia’s “War of the Worlds.” Highlights of Mr. Wrentmore’s directing career include, in the United Kingdom, Howard Barker’s “Wounds to the Face and Picasso’s Women” by Brian McAvera, “Bedevilled” by Richard Hurford and “Loveplay” by Moira Buffini. He was Artistic Director of the Byre Theatre in Scotlandfrom 2004 to 2007; productions include “Not About Heroes,” “The 39 Steps,” “The Twits,” “Translations,” “Private Lives” and “Vincent in Brixton.” In Russia, he directed “The Cripple of Inishmaan,” “Far Away” by Caryl Churchill at the Meyerhold Theatre in Moscow, and “Theatre5” in Omsk. In Pristina, Kosovo, he directed “The Vagina Monologues” and “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” at the National Theatre, and at the National Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia, he directed “The Country” by Martin Crimp. Other projects include directing, teaching, studio readings and masterclasses in Norway, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Sweden, Denmark, USA, Ireland, and Cyprus. In 2008, Mr. Wrentmore worked with Tate Galleries in London and spent 2009 as a visiting academic at Hertford College, Oxford.

A complete listing of the Cast and Crew soon to be announced.

Arizona Theatre Company offers accessibility services for patrons with disabilities for select performances. AudioDescription provides patrons with vision loss a running audio description of the movement and activities onstage through an infrared broadcast system. An Audio-Described performance is offered on February 7 at 2:00 p.m. Interested patrons with vision loss may request a tactile tour one hour prior to curtain. American Sign Language Interpretation is presented by professional, theatrically-trained ASL-interpreters for people who have deafness or hearing impairment. An ASL-interpreted performance is offered on February 7 at 7:30 p.m. Open-captioning allows patrons to read the play's dialogue on an LED screen as the play progresses. An open-captioned performance is offered on February 7 at 2:00 p.m. For open-captioned or ASL-interpreted performances, patrons should request seats best suited to ASL interpretation or captioning when purchasing tickets. Large print and Braille playbills and infrared listening amplification devices are also available at every ATC performance with reservation. TTY access for the box office is available in Tucson at (520) 884-9723 or via Arizona Relay at (800) 367-8939 (TTY/ASCII).

Tickets for “Freud’s Last Session” start at $32, are subject to change depending on time, date and section, and are available at www.arizonatheatre.org or by calling the box office at (520) 622-2823. Discounts are available for seniors and active military. A $10 student ticket pricing is now available for all performances. Half-price rush tickets are available for balcony seating for all performances one hour prior to curtain at the ATC box office (subject to availability). Pay What You Can is January 22 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for this performance are available for a suggested $10 donation. (Tickets must be purchased at the Temple of Music and Art starting one hour prior to curtain on January 22. Seating is first-come first served and is not guaranteed. Cash only, please. Two tickets maximum per person.) For discounts for groups of 10 or more, call (520) 622-2823.

About Arizona Theatre Company

Touching lives through the power of theatre, Arizona Theatre Company (ATC), is the preeminent professional theatre in the state of Arizona. Boasting the largest seasonal subscriber base in the performing arts in Arizona, ATC is the only resident company in the US that reaps the benefits of a two-city operation. Now in its 46th season, more than 130,000 people ayear attend performances at the historic Temple of Music and Art in Tucson, and the intimate and elegant Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix. Eachseason of shows reflect the rich variety of world drama—from classics to contemporary plays, from musicals to new works—along with a wide array of outreach programs, educational opportunities, access initiatives and new play programs. Mark Cole brings national arts management expertise to ATC as Managing Director, and twenty-year veteran, David Ira Goldstein, continues to excel as ATC’s Artistic Director.

Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Many people want to see much more peace, well-being and love in the world and much less violence, fear and hatred. The Youth and Peace Conference, now an annual event in Tucson, intends to be a powerful force for peace and nonviolence, especially among young people in our community. Through educational workshops, dynamic speakers and inspiring performances, conference participants gain awareness and strengthen skills for recognizing and reducing all forms of violence (e.g., bullying, relationship violence, sexual assault, hate, bigotry, negative self-talk). The conference is intended to increase the capacity of youth and adults to effectively communicate, peacefully resolve conflicts, and courageously confront injustice.

The conference coordinating team is committed to youth leadership and youth empowerment in all aspects of the planning and production of this event. Youth and adult volunteers are invited to help. The next planning meeting is Tuesday, January 8, 2013, 5:30 to 7:30 PM at Doolen Middle School, 2400 N. Country Club. Planning team meetings and updates are posted regularly on the conference Facebook page.

CALL FOR WORKSHOPS & PERFORMANCES – Proposals Due by January 15

WORKSHOPS -- The Youth and Peace Conference Planning Team is seeking workshop proposals that demonstrate, illustrate, explore, or discuss one or more of the three ways of making peace that are the focus of the conference: Art, EducationEngagement. Morning workshops will be 1 ½ hours long; afternoon workshops are 1 ¼ hours. Emphasis is on workshops being youth-led and highly participatory or interactive in format.

Art -- Workshops in the Art track can have hands-on art experience or discussion and demonstration about art-based peacebuilding programs in the community. All forms of art are welcome: visual art, dance & movement, performance art, spoken word, photography, music, etc. Art workshops are encouraged that create messaging to reduce/end violence, encourage youth to think critically about solutions, or include art as a form of experimentation in solving social problems.

Education – Included in the Education track would be workshops that inform and enlighten youth and adults about real life issues and possible solutions regarding violence and peace-making that face youth and our community at this time. Topics could include bullying, sexual harassment and assault, gun violence, current youth language, relationship violence, peace-building, conflict resolution, nonviolence, and more.

Engagement– We want to hear from programs and groups that are facilitated by and/or empower youth to advocate on their own behalf. Examples include groups emphasizing youth voice and youth empowerment, as well as projects that focus on community involvement and leadership by youth, and volunteerism and activism regarding social and political change (e.g., SB 1070, immigrant rights, LGBTQ issues, Mexican American Studies, environmental sustainability, etc.).

PERFORMANCES – We are also seeking performances, especially by youth, to take place at various times throughout the conference. Music, theater, rap, hip hop, dance, performance art, poetry, and more. Length = 5 to 10 minutes. All performances should relate to the peacemaking theme of the conference.

To submit your proposal to present a workshop or performance at the Youth and Peace Conference:

EXHIBIT TABLES – If a youth-serving organization would like to have an exhibit table at the conference, contact Margie Mortimer for an application form: yp.conference.table@gmail.com.

CO-SPONSORSHIPS – The primary sponsors for the conference are the End of Bullying Task Force of the Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding and the Nonviolence Legacy Project of the Culture of Peace Alliance. Any group or organization wanting to become a co-sponsor for the Youth and Peace Conference, please contact the Conference Chair Ann Yellott (ann@cultureofpeacealliance.org) or Co-Chair Amanda Diaz (youthandpeaceconference@gmail.com).

The Youth and Peace Conference gratefully acknowledges financial support received from:

-Paxis Institute;

-Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding, a special project of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona;

-Maverick Fund of the Peace Development Fund;

-An anonymous donation covering lunch at the conference.

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal."

Presented by the Nonviolence Legacy Project of the Culture of Peace Alliance.

This two-day, participatory training program covers information about nonviolence as a courageous way of life and a powerful strategy for creating social change and resolving conflict without violence. Apply Martin Luther King's six principles & six steps of nonviolence to your life and to civil rights and social justice issues of our time. Read & discuss two articles written by Dr. King: Pilgrimage to Nonviolence & Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Meet other youth and adults interested in creating positive peace for our community.

International Denim Day is a yearly event, observed in April for Sexual Assault Awareness Month, in which people are encouraged to wear jeans as a visible sign of protest against rape and sexual assault. Tucson hosted a live art event in April of 2012 and popular demand has requested another in April 2013.

In order to put on this event, Denim Day Tucson is pleased to announce their first fundraiser and outreach art show: "Drawn" on January 12th, 2013, at Fluxx Studio & Gallery, 414 E 9th St, Tucson, AZ, 7pm - midnight. This event will showcase jeans that were created at last April's live art event and other works of artists working to end sexual violence in our community. The show will be hosted by Tucson's Black Cat Ajia Simone and have performances by Dj Disko Bomb, Lola Torch, and Skirt Full of Fire.

Denim Day Tucson hopes to see you at this important event that will raise funds for supplies and other needs of the April 2013 live art event and double as an outreach venue for local nonprofits working in violence prevention.

"Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love." ~ Che

Mother Courage and Her Children is, perhaps, the most fascinating play we have presented at The Rogue Theatre (and that's saying a lot). On the surface, it is a story of a woman whose tenacity and drive lead her down roads filled with prosperity and tragedy. At the same time, Brecht's voice is heard throughout the play as he questions the audience about their priorities, actions and culpability in world events. Layered onto that are intriguing songs, surprising humor, perpetual irony and a simple tale about human frailty. Please join us for this striking play and be ready to share your thoughts after the performance!

The Rogue Theatre

presents

MOTHER COURAGEAND HER CHILDRENby Bertolt Brecht

Directed by Joseph McGrath

Musical Direction by Dawn Sellers

January 10-27, 2013

Thursday-Saturday 7:30 P.M., Sunday 2:00 P.M.plus a Saturday 2:00 P.M. matinee on January 26, 2013Scroll down for info about a special Opening Night celebration!

In what many regard as Brecht's masterpiece, Mother Courage profiteers from a constant state of war, as she loses her children to it one by one. Her cynical manipulation of the miseries of others robs her of her title, and at the play's end she is mother to no one. Written in a burst of energy after the invasion of Poland, it is one of our principal ruminations on the nature of war.

As we open Mother Courage and Her Children, we wish to take a moment to celebrate our American Theatre Wing award with our community. This award places us among the top regional theatres nationwide, one worthy of national recognition and support.

Please join us as we gather at the theatre before the play for hot drinks, nibbles and music and then enjoy Brecht's powerful masterpiece.

If your tickets for Mother Courage are for a different night, our box office would be happy to switch your reservation so you can join us at this event. Call us at (520) 551-2053 to reschedule.

LANGUAGE by placing primary value on quality language and literature;ENSEMBLE by developing performers who seek continuous improvement and creating an academy for training ourselves and emerging theatre artists;CHALLENGING IDEAS by presenting plays which offer complex and provocative points of view related to important social, political, and personal issues.

Tucson’s OUT IN THE DESERT is a celebration of LGBT cinema that seeks to create an affirming atmosphere in which to promote acceptance and tolerance, while showcasing the very best in independent films by, for or about the LGBT community.

About the Festival

A celebration of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender films. The 1st annual OUT IN THE DESERT, Tucson’s International LGBT Film Festival- will showcase the best features, documentaries, shorts and musical films exploring LGBT issues and/or created by members of the LGBT community.

Out in the Desert will celebrate the gay and lesbian experience in the Tucson by providing a sense of community through film. The festival aims to enrich and entertain the public with programming that offers diverse perspectives on the LGBT experience, as well as meet the increasing demand for alternative/independent films in the Tucson area. The six-day film festival will showcase features, documentaries, short and music films by new and established artists and offer attendees the opportunity to view topics of interest to the LGBT communities, as well as to interact with filmmakers and documentary subjects in attendance.

Looking for actor (14-20) (Downtown Tucson)

Looking for a male actor, Caucasian (looking), 14-20, skinny, clean shaven to portray a 15 year old. Gig is on January 5th and should last around two hours. Do not have a lot of money, but will offer 20 bucks plus exposure and credit. Non-speaking role for a book trailer (horror genre). Please send head shot and experience. If under 18, parent or guardian must be present during the filming.

·Location: Downtown Tucson

·it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Beowulf Alley Theatre Company presents Three Hotels by Jon Robin Baitz at Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S 6th Ave in downtown Tucson, January 4th through the 20th, Friday and Saturday at 7:30PM and Sunday at 2:30PM. Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, teachers and military personnel. Students are $8.

This taut, emotionally-charged work, which Time magazine lauded as one of the “best plays of 1994,” is a series of moving monologues set in three hotels– in Morocco, the Caribbean and Mexico. Playwright Jon Robin Baitz (Other Desert Cities) weaves a tapestry of corporate misdeeds, personal tragedy, and marital discord between Hoyle, a former idealist now selling defective baby formula in the Third World, and his wife Barbara.

“In a hotel room, nothing sticks.” Says Kenneth Hoyle the central figure of Jon Robin Baitz’s play. "Three Hotels" is an honest play about an articulate, privileged man who takes the fall for the carnage and corruption of the 20th century. Ken Hoyle (ne Hershkovitz) has buried his past in pursuit of a success about to go up in flames. A former Peace Corps volunteer and the child of leftist Russian Jews, he now works for an American company that sells "the Albert Speer of baby formulas" to third-world countries and is so notorious it once co-starred on "60 Minutes" with Union Carbide and the Dalkon Shield.

What makes Mr. Baitz an exciting writer is not so much his indictment of the cynicism and racism that can attend the expedient pursuit of capital and power but the humanity, lacerating wit and theatricality with which he levels his charge. The man and woman at the center of this play are witheringly smart. They often know the case against themselves better than their antagonists do and can make it with sharper humor. Nor have they entirely lost touch with the tender instincts they have sold out: Ken can evoke the Baltimore Jewish Home for the Aged where his mother languishes as vividly as he can the corporate headquarters where "a kind of manufactured thuggishness" is the daily bread. Barbara, his intrepid wife, vividly remembers the promise and innocence of their marriage and the sultry, gritty and wet infidelity she had when the marriage crumbled. Shaken by a profound personal tragedy, Barbara must deliver a speech called “Be Careful” to the wives of other executives tested by overseas assignments.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

If your idea of fun is spending 95 minutes with an annoying mother and her yappy son, pony up for a ticket to “The Guilt Trip.” This is the one where Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen (two different demographics, two different generations) combine their talents for portraying extreme Jewish naggers.

It seems to be happening more lately that movie writers refer to Rogen as “this generation’s Woody Allen.”

What are they thinking? Even though you might qualify both as Jewish guys feeling uncomfortable in public, Woody Allen was quite clever about it. Rogen is only crude.

True, Rogen’s willingness to flagellate himself beyond belief might be considered a sort of extreme cleverness…like having a genius for being obnoxious…but do we have to admire it?

Streisand, meanwhile, seems to enjoy exploring her character making fun of Jewish middleclass nudges. It’s more funny, apparently, if you knew a bunch of first generation Jews with these same sledge hammer social skills.

This is another one of those comedy teams born of market research. Streisand’s aggressively caring Joyce, dedicated to looking after every last whim of her son Andy (Rogen), brings in the senior citizen camp. Joyce does all the heavy lifting, setting up the jokes and then knocking them down, as well, while Andy just dithers about.

The plot, so to speak, is just a road trip with these two crammed into a subcompact car hitting several cities traveling coast to coast. By the time they cross the Mississippi River, you’ll be thinking “at least I’m halfway to the end of this so-called comedy!”

Actually, stay for the credits because they include some improvised comedy bits between Streisand and Rogen that are much funnier than the stuff that gets in the movie.